Top seed Sofia Costoulas, one of the Tennis Europe Junior Tour’s most in-form players, kept her amazing run going as she won the Open des Jeunes BNP Paribas Cup title in Paris at the weekend to clinch her fourth title of the year. Second seeded Cesar Bouchelaghem joined the Belgian in the winners’ circle as he lifted his first singles trophy of the season, made even sweeter by doing so on home soil.
Now in its 29th year, this leading 14 & Under tournament is one of the Tour’s most coveted crowns. Former champions to grace this event and walk away with a win include the likes of Halep, Wozniacki, Ostapenko, Monfils, Murray and Del Potro. The tournament regularly has some of the toughest draws of all 360+ Tennis Europe Junior Tour events and attracts ITF Touring Teams of the best players from all over the world.
Costoulas, a winner of two Category 1 events already this season, including the 16 & Under Pont des Generations, was in blistering form and was only pushed by the Bergen champion Aysegul Mert in the quarter finals. Prior to that match she had lost just two games in as many matches, and after facing some resistance from the Turk, she was once again as solid as a rock, not dropping another set on route to victory. Her 6-3 6-3 semi-final win over Argentina’s Solana Sierra put her in good stead for the final where she was to meet local promise Oceane Babel. The French girl, finalist in Avignon in 2017 and Bolton this year, took out the second seed Anastasiya Konstantinova Soboleva (UKR), sixteenth seed Xin Tong Wang (CHN), fifth seed Maria Sara Popa (ROU) and Bolivia’s Gabriela Cortes Flores in an amazing run to the final. The fairytale was not to be however, as she was taken down convincingly 6-0 6-2 by Costoulas in the decider.
The boy’s tops seed, Constantinos Koshis was stunned in the second round by Chinese wildcard Juncheng Shang, falling in straight sets. The champion, Bouchelaghem struggled through some of his early matches, but was on his game at the business end of the tournament. Bouchelaghem booked a place in the final after having seen off his compatriot Arthur Fils 6-4 6-1 in the semi finals. Another player from South America was to be his opponent in the final, Gonzalo Bueno. A reflection of the tournament’s international feel and allure for inter-continental players, the Peruvian made his way through by taking out players from across the globe, including Hamza El Amine from Morocco, Aman Dahiya from India, and German qualifier Georg Eduard Israelen in the semi-finals. As in the girls’ draw however, the score line was a one-sided affair as the local boy outdid Bueno 6-2 6-0.
In the boys’ doubles there were to be more great results for the visiting players in an all-South American final. Chile’s Piero Antonio Fernandez Moreno & Adolfo Daniel Vallejo of Paraguay won the doubles final, defeating Peru’s Bueno & Nicolas Niño Mendoza of Colombia 6-3 6-4.
In the girls’ doubles final, Costoulas, playing with Anna Panchartek (CZE), inflicted more pain on Babel and her partner Laia Petretic (FRA) in an agonizing championship tiebreak. The Belgian-Czech pair fought back from a whitewash in the second set to take the match and the title 7-5 0-6 10-7.
With the win, Costoulas moves up one spot to #3 on the 14 & Under rankings and 5 spots to #40 on the overall ranking. Bouchelagham, for his part, breaks into the Top 10 in the 14 & Under rankings.
Category 2 events
16 & Under Dema Cup - Sofia, Bulgaria
There were Bulgarian winners across the board in Sofia. Boys’ singles number one seed and Pecin Memorial winner, Peter Nesterov (BUL) was upset in the final, going down to Mert Ramadan 6-0 6-2. The girls’ number one seed, Tamari Gagoshidze from Georgia, was defeated in the semi-finals by the eventual champion, fourth seed Denislava Glushkova. In the final Glushkova beat her second seeded Bulgarian compatriot Katerina Dimitrova 5-7 6-4 6-0.
Making up for her loss in the singles final, however, Dimitrova teamed with Mirela Shkumbova to win the doubles event, while boys’ semi-finalist Denislav Prodanov won the doubles with his partner Veselin Kiselkov.
14 & Under Jufa 2018 - Furstenfeld, Austria
It was not a great week at the office for the top seeds in Austria. Maxim Dontsov (RUS) lost in the boys’ final to second seed Oldrich Vejsicky (CZE) who claimed his second title, while girls’ top seed Zuzanna Bednarz (POL) was sent packing in the quarterfinals. The title eventually went to Hungarian fifteenth seed Vanesa Dalma Danko. She picked up her first tournament win by defeating Canadian Kayla Cross 6-2 6-2.
Honours in the boys’ doubles went to Donstov & Ivan Sodan (CRO), while the girls’ doubles winners were Austrians Claudia Gasparovic & Liel Marlies Rothensteiner.
For full results in all events and categories here and elsewhere from this past week, please click here, or to view the week's photo galleries, click here.